Felix Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat assemblyman introduced a bill on March 11th, that would require patrons of any NY State strip club, to pay and extra $10 cover charge, oops I mean “tax”, every time they enter the club or topless joint. Felix claims the new tax could raise as much as $500 million for victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual abuse and child prostitution.
So it’s a NY style government shake down???
For one, I’ve found these type of taxes very unreasonable for several reasons. The Gov has no transparency so there’s really nothing public that can be used to track this tax back to the very programs he’s proposing. I see this as yet another “tax” generated by the NY state assemble and primarily pushed by Gov. Paterson, to minimize the state’s $14 billion budget deficit which ultimately will be forced upon New York City residents. Also been proposed are taxes on internet downloads such as mp3s and movies, including those in the Adult entertainment business.
Apparently states have increasingly turned to the adult-entertainment industry, this and the booze industry, which are the only ones still making money, to help close budget gaps in recent years.
NY isn’t the first, Texas lawmakers pitched a bill which would require a $5 “pole tax” which was later found to be unconstitutional by a state judge. Judge Scott Jenkins wrote that the fee, “while furthering laudable goals, violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and is therefore invalid.”
“The bottom line is, we have to protect people who have been victimized by unscrupulous individuals, and we cannot continue, especially in this economy, to have government pay for everything,” Ortiz said.
Fuck you Ortiz! Entering a strip clubs is a protected First Amendment activity. There hasn’t been any evidence provided that combining alcohol (or zero alcohol for full nude clubs) with topless erotic dancing correlates to sexual assaults, domestic violence or contributes to child prostitution. Where is the straight line from child porn/prostitution to adult entertainment? He’s just proposed taking more money away from law abiding citizens (both the patrons and the dancers as this would effect how much a participant contributes to the activity) so essentially the govt CAN pay for unrelated services.
Stripping may be politically unpopular, it is a guaranteed right for the citizens of the state and the US. Even if the state were to get by the constitutionality of the tax, there is no plausibly good reason that tax code should be a substitute for the criminal code. No one would object to contributing to educating and preventing sexually related crimes, however, I would hope communities locally and societies everywhere would want to fund such programs generally.
T-Pain – I’m in Love with a Stripper
[audio: http://www.box.net/shared/static/fuae6uqog0.mp3]